Homeowners Ann and Craig Rice of Orange share a smooch between sips of wine on their front yard deck. "It is so gratifying to walk out every morning to our paradise yard. Enjoying its beauty and alluring water stream is so meditative," Ann says. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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A river runs through the yard at the Orange home of Ann and Craig Rice. The white noise from the stream is calming for the homeowners and soft enough that music can be played at a moderate level and still be heard. Succulents, cactuses, gentle sloping hills and valleys surround the water. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Several blue rose succulents, larger than a lettuce head, beautify an Orange garden. It is just one of many variety of succulents found in this front yard paradise. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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This is just one example of the beautiful plant life that thrives in this Orange front yard which only needs to hand watered once a week, according to homeowners. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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A metal swan blends in beautifully with its rustic surroundings in Orange. "The best and most rewarding part is when neighbors walk by remarking that for months they had no idea it would look like this," Jay Blair Ebbert of Anaheim, landscape designer, says. The river runs nearly the entire length of the yard. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Homeowner Ann Rice's front yard is a stand out in an Orange neighborhood of well-manicured lawns. She crosses a bridge above a river. "Doing yoga on the front patio is such an experience," Rice says of the low-maintenance landscape she loves. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Homeowner Craig Rice of Orange was motivated to redo his front yard to be more drought tolerant. "Water conservation is critical right now. Hand watering once a week is satisfying and we enjoy our beautiful yard every day," he says. Rice, his wife Ann and their friend/landscape artist Jay Blair Ebbert, standing, savor the last seconds of sunset. A Madagascar palm tree is at center. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Landscape designer Jay Blair Ebbert took five months to transform this flat front yard into a gently rolling, unique and low-maintenance paradise of succulents, sculptures and a stream for his friends Craig and Ann Rice of Orange. The Madagascar palm tree, center, has remained. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Charming touches include these log steps that connect the bridge to the front yard deck at this Orange home. CINDY YAMANAKA, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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His longtime good friends Ann and Craig Rice had a modest, comfortable home with a small yard in Orange that pretty much fit in with the other modest, comfortable homes with small yards nearby.

But Craig was starting to worry about water shortages and wanted to replace the grass in the yard with drought-tolerant plants. Ann was doubtful.

That set Ebbert to thinking. “I had a couple of years to sit and look at their yard, and think about what I wanted to do,” Ebbert said. So by the time Ann and Craig were ready to change the yard, Ebbert had the whole plan for their landscape figured out.

“I didn't even draw on it on paper – it was all in my head,” he said.

It would make Craig and Ann's house stand out in the neighborhood – that was for sure.

Ebbert, 58, is an artist and self-taught landscape designer with many skills and talents. At one time, he made money building custom pools across Orange County, but when the economy nose-dived, that business ended and he had to find something new.

He's an out-of-the-box thinker who knows how to transform plain landscapes into wonderlands of slopes, pathways, water features, cactuses, succulents and rocks.

But he needed work and found it as a handyman. “At first, I was embarrassed to say I was a handyman,” he said. But through this work, more landscaping jobs started coming his way. “Now I'm proud to say I'm a handyman,” he said. Having years of construction experience, he knows how to fix and build almost anything.

Ebbert's eyes light up when he talks about a Madagascar palm that bursts forth with white blooms in the spring. He loves rocks and spends a lot of time choosing the right ones for the right spots. He observes a space for hours and days in different kinds of light so he can imagine just the right shapes for it.

“I'm passionate; it just comes down to that,” Ebbert said. He remembers working side by side with his father creating landscapes of all the homes he lived in with his parents.

Ann was unsure about a landscape that would not include typical flowers, but Ebbert said to her, “I'm going to build a yard for you worthy of being in a magazine.”

He jumped into the project. “First, I dug out all the grass,” Ebbert said. He wanted to create a dry riverbed that also could run water, so he dug a hole for a catch basin, and with that dirt he made gentle slopes and low spots for the stream.

He made it so the pump was hidden under a rock, and built a stone waterway that curled around the corner of the house, across the front and down into the ground where the water seemed to disappear. “It's the same principle as a water fountain – the water recirculates,” Ebbert explained.

He picked rocks from a friend's desert property in Wrightwood (with permission, of course), brought them back to Ann and Craig's house and began placing them strategically for the best effect. He selected gravel called Palm Springs Gold for the outside, and Arizona pebble for the stream.

As for plants, “I don't work with nurseries,” Ebbert said. He has hundreds of plants growing at his own house, something he's done for years, so he can pick and choose what he wants at no cost.

He brought plants in their pots to Ann and Craig's house. “I moved them around to different spots to see where I wanted everything to go,” he said. Using a variety of succulents and cactuses for this landscape, he created a designed but wild-looking environment.

He also built a small deck. “I made it with no visible screws,” Ebbert said proudly. He included a sculpture he made using an old garage spring, and for a foot path, he used tree rounds. “I got the wood off of another job. I took a chain saw and sliced it up into 5-inch slivers, then coated them with lacquer and put them in as steppingstones.” He made a small bridge over the riverbed that matches the deck.

Although he had some interruptions, the whole project took seven months. The reaction of his friends? “They love it,” Ebbert said.

And so do the neighbors. The yard is an attraction for local folks out for a walk at night.

“Ann and Craig sit out on the deck at night and hear people talking who are walking by,” Ebbert said. “One night I was out there with them and we heard somebody say, ‘This should be in a magazine,' and I said to Ann, ‘See?'”

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